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More than one Palestinian has spoken out against the latest EU boycott against Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, claiming that it harms Palestinian interests. A senior level Palestinian Authority official who preferred to remain anonymous told Israel Hayom, “It’s not just Israeli companies that are going to be hit economically; it’s also going to be disastrous economically and socially for the Palestinian community.” The official added that the EU move will freeze joint projects between the two communities and force Israelis to stop hiring Palestinians.

Approximately 22,500 Palestinians are employed by Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria supporting not only themselves, but also countless members of their extended families. As it stands, unemployment for Palestinians in Judea and Samaria is around 20 percent, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Should demand for products from Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria decrease due to EU labeling, the unemployment rate among Palestinians is expected to rise. Observers say this will affect young Palestinians under the age of 26 most intensely, who are permitted to work in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria yet are denied work visas to Israel proper due to security considerations.

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Some Palestinians believe that adversely affecting the Palestinian standard of living will undermine the peace process, which was recently reignited by US Secretary of State John Kerry. Palestinians working in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria reportedly earn NIS 164 per day, a salary 88.8 percent higher than the average daily wage throughout the rest of Judea and Samaria, enabling countless Palestinians to enjoy a better standard of living.

The EU policy is expected to “affect everyone, whether Jew or Palestinian,” Sammer Darawsha, who works as part of a joint Israeli-Palestinian agricultural project located near a Jewish community in Judea and Samaria, told Israel Hayom. “If they take away our livelihoods and food, exactly what kind of peace will be here?”

The Palestinian income from working in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria makes up a critical part of the Palestinian economy, comprising nearly 9 percent of the total PA budget, amounting to $3.1 billion. Additionally, Palestinians working in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria are exposed to Israeli technologies and meet Israeli citizens, fostering the type of friendships that many observers say are needed to build a peaceful future between these two peoples.

For these reasons, Mudar Zahran, a prominent Palestinian pro-peace and pro-democracy activist from Jordan, is also staunchly against the new EU boycott against Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. “The EU is not helping the Palestinians or peace in the region when it chooses to boycott settlement products or any Israeli products,” saysZahran. He notes, “Little did they know that the only people making the most of the economic growth of those settlements are the Palestinians themselves.”

“The majority of the workers at those settlements are Palestinians making European pay standards just a bus ride away from their villages,” Zahran added. Zahran recommends that the EU ”consider a different approach to trying to achieve peace in the Middle Easter other than utilizing flawed outdated concepts.”

Rachel Avraham is a senior media research analyst at the Center for Near East Policy Research and a correspondent for the Israel Resource News Agency. She is the author of “Women and Jihad: Debating Palestinian Female Suicide Bombings in the American, Israeli and Arab Media.”

6 COMMENTS

Dear Israel, Seems to me more Palestinians need be encouraged to work in Israel, the rest of us keep our noses out of Israel's business………this information in the above article gets no hearing outside of Israel nor I doubt in the EU. The EU MEP's have among them left wing members who are so far left to be considered communist. Murphy a Dubliner, less than the age of Yom Kippur War was banging on Russia Today how the capitalists of Israel are depriving the impoverished Palestinians of dignity and income. Israel needs to get the kind of information above into International press and TV. All we hear about is the phoney Peace talks which are a waste of time and just oiling the rise and rise of Kerry and ABBAS being the centre of the arena. Enough already, dump the peace talks, a referendum as Israel has suggested entered into by the grass roots of Israel, not advocates of terrorism, teachers brain washing and abusing children. The element of child abuse in Palastinian schools needs broader coverage world wide. This is where foreign journalists should be reporting not the usual jumped up Pallywood crap screened here in Europe and US. More coverage of Palestinians attacking folk on Temple Mount, desicrating ancient archeological evidence of first and second Temple, history and early civilization, there were no muslims before 1400 ce.

The Israeli and Palestinian economies are attached to each other by an economic umbilical cord. They do over U.S. $6 billion dollars with of business with each other. Israel is the Palestinians largest trading partner, and if the Palestinian economy went under, it would pull Israel down along with it. Israel would not be able to decouple to make up for the lose.

The Israeli and Palestinian economies are attached to each other by an economic umbilical cord. They do over U.S. $6 billion dollars with of business with each other. Israel is the Palestinians largest trading partner, and if the Palestinian economy went under, it would pull Israel down along with it. Israel would not be able to decouple to make up for the lose.